I've never played with a playmat before, because they're so expensive. Could someone please explain the advantages, especially for Cosmic Encounter Duel? And what about storage -- will this playmat fit inside the box, either flat or rolled up?

These playmats are normally large sized (thus wouldn't fit inside the Core Box), and are meant as a learning of placement for the game components as well as built with two players in mind - one per side. The last few I ordered where rolled up in a plastic one-time use container. The playmat material is neoprene-like with artwork under a light clear coating to protect it from normal usage.

On 1/14/2020 at 10:17 PM, WLVA said:

I've never played with a playmat before, because they're so expensive. Could someone please explain the advantages, especially for Cosmic Encounter Duel? And what about storage -- will this playmat fit inside the box, either flat or rolled up?

They are cool items that have no real purposes or give you any help apart from how to position cards (which isn't necessarily helpful, and many players use different configurations regardless - right-handed vs left-handed players will have different preferences just to say one; then depends on table space and so on). It merely aesthetics, I'd say, and the desire to pimp our games.

If you're the kind of player who orders a new game right away, posts on the company's forums, and thinks about spending $30 more for a playmat, then you're the kind of player who doesn't actually need the playmat. You're already motivated to acquire, learn, and teach the game.

The mat is designed to attract interest from causals passing by a demo table at a live event. FFG just makes them available to purchase because a small number of hardcore completists want one, and producing/selling extras can help reduce the marketing costs through extra sales revenue and potentially lower per-unit pricing on higher quantities.

If you have $30 to blow and you think it's cool, buy it. But you won't be missing out or have any trouble learning the game without it; it's just eye candy.

Thanks for the collective advice. It's good to know I haven't been missing out on a major experience.

Here are some of the reasons why someone would get a game mat:

• Some games like X-Wing and Armada (any two X-wing sized mats) need something which clearly shows the edges of the play area. Some are prettier than others, like the Bespin mat versus the Starfield mat .
• Some mats are designed to make setup a lot faster, like the ones for Imperial Assault which allow you to just unroll a mat instead of finding and connecting all of the individual game tiles. This is especially helpful when using larger game maps .
• Some games have variable setups, which makes the Twilight Imperium 4th Edition game mat very useful because it shows the tile configurations and home system locations for all of the different player counts.
• Some game mats are helpful for teaching and for keeping a card game organized during play, like the 2-player mats for KeyForge , Netrunner , L5R , Star Wars: The Card Game , etc.
• Most smaller mats are designed for a single player to use during a card game because it has really nice artwork , because it clearly defines that player's area, and/or because the mat's surface makes it easier to pick up cards and is gentler on the cards than the table is.
• Then there are game mats like the one for the The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth which are almost entirely just for aesthetics.

Storing a game mat really depends on your preference as well as the size of the mat. For my single-player mats, I use game mat tubes of various colors which are found in most game stores and online game retail websites. For my larger mats, I used to use the cardboard boxes or plastic tubes that they come in, but not long ago I switched to extendable poster tubes with hard plastic and a shoulder strap for safer and easier transport.

I play on my dining table, so a mat provides me:-

• Something to roll dice on that reduces the noise of those dice
• My kids seem to have constant issues with getting food and drink into their mouths, so a mat protects me from anything I may miss when I clean up
• It makes it easier to pick up cards
• The cards don't run away when dealing them out

Just don't order the mat and the game together. FFG have yet to release a game mat on time and mail orders won't get sent until all products in the order are ready to ship.

20 hours ago, Amanal said:

Just don't order the mat and the game together. FFG have yet to release a game mat on time and mail orders won't get sent until all products in the order are ready to ship.

Sadly, this is very true.